Letting Go of Food Rules on Vacation

What are food rules?

A food rule is an external piece of information, usually provided by diet culture, that a person allows to determine their food choices and feelings about their choices instead of relying on internal hunger and satiation cues. Food rules do not have to be followed to exist. Breaking food rules that you hold for yourself can cause intense guilt. This is due to the fact that food rules place a moral label on different foods, but eating certain foods cannot make you either a morally good or evil person.

 Examples of food rules include only eating at certain times, only eating certain foods, feeling guilt when eating or cutting out foods or food groups, moralizing food, feeling the need to “earn” your food through working out, or limiting calories. 

Why do we hold on to food rules, even when we know better?

Think about what these rules are presumably adding to your life. In many cases, they provide a structure to organize your life around or they help you feel more in control. But the reality is that food rules do not provide true structure or control, they create disorder and make you lose control of your life.

Releasing these rules, in the long run, will help to take back control of your life and find more joy. When diet culture does not rule your life, you can find freedom. Releasing food rules for your vacation will help you and those around you have a fun and relaxing vacation without the dose of diet culture.

Work on ditching the food rules before you leave on vacation. 

Think about the food rules that you follow or have in your head. Write them down and go through them, thinking about where that food rule came from and how it impacts your life. As stated above, these rules may provide a sense of control, but dig deeper and see whether they provide control or make you feel out of control around food. Identifying and honoring why you picked up and followed this rule will help you let go of it. This way you can replace this rule with something positive. 

Plan Ahead! 

Start the work before the vacation. Incorporate previously forbidden foods and fear foods ahead of time. Learn to question the food police and your food rules before your trip.

Plan non-food-related activities. Make sure that you are not planning your life around food. Getting away from the food with activities such as going to the beach, biking, going to the movies, and going bowling can help to ease the stress of working towards letting go of your food rules.

Get excited! Your whole trip should not be about the food but get excited about the food beforehand! If you’re going somewhere with a different food culture then read about that, scope out some exciting restraints, and make plans to have fun trying to foods. Not only will this help you to let go of some of your food rules, but it might help to challenge some fear foods.

During your vacation.

 Try to go with the flow. Check in with yourself so that you know what you want and are able to do at the moment. Understand that intuitive eating may not be perfect during this trip. You likely will not be eating during normal times, meals may be erratic and spaced out, and you may eat beyond your comfortable fullness. For example, the group may decide to just get brunch and dinner instead of three meals that day. Or everyone will decide that they want to go out to get ice cream even when you are still full from dinner. If these food decisions come up, there is no right or wrong choice. You can go and get the ice cream without attaching a moral prerogative to the act.

Stay adequately fed. Although you may not have control over meal timing, you can avoid a situation where you get so hungry that you act and eat from a place of primal hunger. You can have pre-packaged snacks on-hand such as protein bars or trail mix to eat even if out are on the go during your vacation. A snack from a vending machine or a convenience store can help to hold you over for long periods between meals.

 Let go of your idea of exercise. You do not need to exercise to earn your food. If you know that movement helps with your mental state and will help you stay in a place where you can let go of food rules, then let go of a certain idea of exercise. Movement will likely be incorporated throughout your days anyway! Vacations typically consist of a lot of walking and other activities like biking, surfing, and kayaking!

 Trust your body. Make food choices based on what actually feels good to you in the moment. Take the time to check in, think back to what foods you were excited about trying, and trust that your body knows what it wants and needs.

 After your vacation.

 Do not do any post-vacation “making-up” for what you ate and did on vacation! You do not need to. Even if you made food choices that did not make you feel great, your body does not need a “cleanse” or “detox”. Your body will get itself to where it needs to be and will tell you what it needs.

 Vacation is supposed to be a time of rest, so let it be! Letting go of food rules seems scary and daunting, but with a bit of preparation and mindfulness, you can ditch diet culture on your next vacation!

References

Bennett, K. (n.d.). Letting go of diet rules on vacation. Rachael Hartley Nutrition. https://www.rachaelhartleynutrition.com/blog/letting-go-of-food-rules-on-vacation

Berk, J. E. (2019, July 2). How to let go of food rules. Jenny Eden Berk. https://www.jennyedenberk.com/blogroll/how-to-let-go-of-food-rules

Christensen, C. (2020, December 21). How to identify and break food rules. No Food Rules. https://colleenchristensennutrition.com/how-to-identify-and-break-food-rules/

Hake, K. (2019, September 18). 4 ways to a healthier vacation without the food rules. Wellseek. https://wellseek.co/2019/09/18/4-ways-to-a-healthier-vacation-without-the-food-rules/

Nohling, R. (2018, June 29). Learning to let go of rigid food and exercise rules on vacation. The Real Life RD. https://www.thereallife-rd.com/2018/06/intuitive-eating-on-vacation/

Vasquez, I. (n.d.). How to let go of food rules. Your Latina Nutritionist. https://yourlatinanutritionist.com/blog/how-to-let-go-of-food

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